If you know me, then you'll know how much I love historical fictions, especially the ones related to WWII but this was a bit different.
Set in Berlin in the 1960s, after WWII, The Midwife of Berlin is a story of 3 strong women.

The Berlin Wall, constructed in 1961, was the Cold War's most tangible symbol and demarcation of the Iron Curtain. This book made me realise how little I know about history, especially the after effects of the War and how families were torn apart.

I did struggle a bit around 30% but I'm glad that I didn't give up because the second half was worth it. I didn't know that it was a sequel so I'll go back to the 1st book soon.

To be honest, initially liked Kirsten's POV more than Olivia's but soon. Overall, this book was eye-opening in so many ways.
If you enjoy historical fictions related to WWII, then I would highly recommend it to you.

Thank you @bookouture and @netgalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Interesting read. Loved the characters and could imagine it happening but I did find chopping and changing in time zone and characters confusing. For me it didn’t have the ‘punch’ that wanted me to read and felt it the story was elongated.
The discription of the set was very good.

this is the 2nd book in the women at war series by Anna Stuart. it's includes harrowing accounts of the Berlin Wall and is a continuation of The Midwife of Auchwitz. the author has truly done a great job and it's well researched..

Book: The Midwife of Berlin
Author: Anna Stuart
Series: Women of War, Book #2
Publisher: Kensington-Zebra
Length: 406 Pages
Overall Rating: 5/5 Stars
Blog Rating: 5/5 Saltire Flags


A heartbreaking story about how the Jews were persecuted with so much brutality, evilness and fascism! Trying to make Jews hate themself telling lies and stealing their homes, finances, and many of their lives. Also beating, starving and abusing the Jewish people. This also is about the Berlin Wall and is a continuation of The Midwife of Auschwitz.

This is a fictional story that is absolutely brilliant! A book I highly recommend!

This book really touched my heart having a father who fought in WW2 who was a teenager himself. He saw all his boyhood friends being shot and killed. Suffering with malaria his entire life.

I received this book From Zebra *Kensington* publishers for a fair and honest review. I voluntarily agreed to read, review, blog and promote through netgalley. All words, ideas and thoughts are my own.

The Midwife of Berlin is written by Anna Stuart. This is book two in the Women of War book. I have read book one (The Midwife of Auschwitz), but both can be read as stand alone stories. This is a warning, be prepared to cry. The opening of this book is so raw and filled with emotion that I was not prepared for. The author has done such a wonderful job at capturing this part of history. The book goes back and forth to a few points of view. The author has woven them together seamlessly.

Ester had a baby that was forcefully taken from her in 1943. She was in Auschwitz and they always took the babies to give to German families to raise. It broke her heart. She is lucky to escape and is reunited with her husband. They have two more children and adopt an orphan, Olivia. Ester is a midwife and carries around the pain of losing her daughter.

Her adopted daughter, Olivia is recognized as a potential athlete and gets to go to a state school. She quickly finds out that life is different away from her parents. We also see the tension between West and East Germany. We somehow forget how badly innocent Germans were affected after then war.

The other point of view is Kiersten. Her father had been a SS soldier and has been in prison since the war. She helps the family finances by working in a bakery. She also makes her own clothes, and is very talented. Her brother Uli always comes and picks her up from work. One day - their world comes crashing down when their father is released from prison.

I enjoyed following these stories. The author has done such careful research and has brought this part of history alive. through her writing. I hope to read more from this author.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read a copy of this book - all thoughts are my own.

As always, Anna Stuart has delivered another well researched and emotionally charged story depicting the horrors and sadness of the concentration camps of WWII.

This is Book 2 in the Women of War Series, and continues the story of Ester Pasternak from Book 1: The Midwife of Auschwitch. I would definitely recommend reading that first.

In this installment we are at the end of the war and miraculously, Ester is leaving the death camp alive. However, now begins the heartbreaking journey to find the baby girl who was stolen from her just after birth. Ester played an instrumental role in tattooing all new babies in their armpits with their mother's camp number, and this is how she prays she will find her baby.

But when Berlin is split in two, the task is made immeasurably harder, and the realities of living life separated from family and friends become even more heartbreaking. Without giving too much away, Anna's emotionally charged writing, vividly and sensitively brings the devastation to life.

The factual information Anna extensively researched and used, excellently portrays the depth of sorrow that was 1940's Berlin.

Both books have been an absolute pleasure to read and I look forward to Anna Stuart's next piece of work. She is undoubtedly one of those authors where you purchase her new books without question as you know she will deliver a heart-touching and authentic story.

Thank you to Netgalley, Bookouture and Anna Stuart for a copy of the both in return for an honest and open review.

A definite must read! I loved every minute of this story! Anna Stuart knows how to tell a story and the time period is a great historic event, and she knows how to bring the reader in!

This is a war time story based in Auschwitz. Through all the sorrow and pain this book is also a lovely tale of bravery and strength.

Ester is a prisoner in the camp, but also a midwife who secretly delivers babies. Sadly she is left without her daughter who is painstakingly taken from her arms, however not before she secretly tattooed her babies armpit with her own number (identification numbers were tattooed on all prisoners arms in Auschwitz) as she did with many of the babies she delivered, so she could try and find her later.

Ester later adopts a daughter, Olivia, who was born is Auschwitz and later adopted by Ester in Berlin. Ester also has two sons. She works as a midwife still.

Olivia and her brother Filip learn of Esters daughter (whom Ester refers to as being called Pippa) and make it their mission to find her, in hopes of doing so will help Ester move on from the horrors of Auschwitz.

I was given a ARC copy of this book by #Netgalley in return for my honest review.

The Midwife Of Berlin is the latest powerful page-turning novel from historical fiction author Anna Stuart. It’s a heartbreaking story primarily set in 1961 Berlin, the year the Berlin Wall was constructed, with occasional flashbacks to Auschwitz in 1943 and Berlin in 1950. Anna Stuart’s engaging writing style made the setting come alive on the page and I was utterly hooked from prologue to epilogue.
I did start reading the book without realising it was the sequel to The Midwife of Auschwitz, a book which has been on my TBR list for a while. But I was surprised with how well easy the story was to follow despite this, and this is credit to Anna Stuart’s incredible writing ability, so I continued reading and I would say that the book does largely work as a standalone story. It has made me excited to read The Midwife of Auschwitz though to gain a more in-depth understanding of Ester’s wartime story.
Something which stood out from even the early chapters of The Midwife of Berlin was how clearly meticulously researched the history was and how history was just seamlessly woven into the story. Alongside the primary focus on Holocaust-survivors trying to reunite with the children who had been taken from them and adopted into Nazi Germany, the books provided an interesting insight into life on either side of the wall such as the decades-long athlete doping programme that existed in East Germany and the difference between the East and West in attitudes to sex and relationships.
I really appreciated the choice of when to set the story as it meant that we were able to explore life in both East and West Berlin before the construction of the wall, on the day it went up, in the months and years following the construction and also in the aftermath of the fall of the wall.
The Midwife of Berlin has an ensemble of wonderful characters who were all written with such depth to their characters. Olivia and Kirsten were both fantastically written realistic teenagers and it was fantastic to see their character development throughout the novel from naïve teenagers to mature self-aware young women. Their romantic relationships with their respective partners were also wonderfully written and I also loved the strong sibling bond between Olivia and her brother Uli that withstands the revelations in the story. Although the majority of the characters are fictional, we also had a powerful portrayal of the heroic actions of Dieter Wohlfahrt, a real person who worked with other students to get people out of East Berlin.
This is a hard-hitting story with potentially triggering content including rape and women forced to give their children up for adoption. I have provided a full list of content warnings at the beginning of my review at www.yourschloe.co.uk . Although these topics are hard-hitting, I found them all to be explored in powerful ways which did justice to the real European women who experienced these horrific acts in the 1940s and the lifelong trauma they experienced as a result.
Overall, The Midwife Of Berlin is a really powerful piece of historical fiction and has been one of my standout historical fiction books of 2023. It is a story I will truly never forget and one I’ve been recommending to anyone who will listen.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

I have posted an extended review on my blog www.yourschloe.co.uk and the post is linked.

The Midwife of Berlin by Anna Stuart. Ester Pasternak has survived Auschwitz but the baby she gave birth to in there has been taken and she’d quite like her back. Olivia and Kirsten are two very different girls but Olivia has taken upon herself to find the sister she has never met. It’s a lot about finding your sister but it’s also a lot about the Berlin Wall going up. I really enjoyed it and the 18 year olds do act like 18 years old. I think I found the wall going up marginally more interesting than the lost sister but I really enjoyed this book and thought it was a refreshing angle to have it take place after the war.

At first, I thought this would be a WW2 novel but its setting takes place in the chaos of divided Berlin in the early 1960s! During this Cold War era, we see life through the eyes of two girls, both born in a death camp in 1943 but adopted due to their blond hair and light skin. Oliva, a girl adopted by Ester, a Jewish midwife, who had her baby girl, Pippa, stolen by the Germans, a few days after birth. Olivia learned about her new sister while trying to keep up in the world of sports under the Soviet Union which is full of secrets, dangers, and spies. Kristen is Pippa, and she only finds out once her father returns from prison camp that she is a Jewish orphan adopted by him and his wife. It's a page turner and very well done, I loved the entire story and am looking forward to more of her books..

The Midwife of Berlin by Anna Stuart is phenomenal. I was drawn to this one because I read the first book in the series, The Midwife of Auschwitz and was so impressed. I saw the title and knew I had to see what happened with some of the characters. I was especially curious because I lived in Berlin during the time when the Wall came down and always appreciate stories about characters’ lives when it was erected. I was not disappointed at any point in this telling.
Esther had the heartbreaking experience of surviving her time in Auschwitz, but having her newborn baby taken away shortly after delivery. She clings to the hope and prayer that she will one day find the tattoo that matches her own. Eighteen years later, with her life established and a family she adores, she witnesses Germany, specifically Berlin, spiral down into utter upheaval and chaos. I genuinely do not want to give any of this powerful story away, as there is so much to be experienced in the reading. However, once again, Anna has masterfully created her characters to make you feel like you are in the midst of the circumstances with them. Her attention to details, especially people’s points of view during the unrest, the appearance of the wall literally overnight, and the desperate measures people went to in order to remain united with loved ones are riveting and captivating. The dialogue and conflict as characters wrestled with the ideals of socialism vs freedoms was spot on. Living there during the time before and after, I felt her descriptions in so many of my memories. I remember the stories people told and there is so much truth that resonates with her telling. While I would like to see every person’s story told from this dark time in history, what I appreciate about this one is that is occurs after the camp liberations and focuses on what life was like for people afterwards. It covers that period of instability leading up to the wall’s appearance. The story does not leave you hanging and wraps up loose ends nicely. I wholeheartedly recommend this to all lovers of historical fiction that occurs in Europe during the 1940s-1960s.
I received a complimentary copy from the publisher via NetGalley and all opinions expressed are solely my own, freely given.

A story of Ester, who escapes Auschwitz, but without her daughter, Pippa. The story follows Ester's search for Pippa. You could feel the love for her child, you could feel the fear for her child. It was a very emotional read.

I am a true lover of historical fiction and I often think they might repeat themselves and end up boring me after a while. But as yet this has not happened and this book had me enthralled from the start. It is such a heart-breaking story, sometimes hard to read but so intriguing I just couldn't stop reading it. To think what so many people had to endure in these wars is unfathomable.

I hadn't read the first book in this series and didn't really know there was one. But this didn't hinder my reading experience (But now I do need to go find the first book and read it then maybe read this again). This is a book with not one story but three really and it is very well written. Mother, daughters, sisters, A book about what these women endured and how their lives unfolded. Auschwitz, Germany, The Berlin Wall, War. It is all here.

I loved this book but think I will love it even more once I read the first book. So I am off now to find it at the library. Fingers crossed.

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

**i did not realize this was the second installment of a series when I read it so my review might change once I go back and read the first installment. I think some of the questions I had will be answered and some things will make a little more sense to me**

Olivia and Kirsten have several things in common, they just don’t know it or each other. They were both born in Auschwitz, they both were tattooed with the same numbers that matched their birth mothers and they were both taken away when they were just a few days old. Kirsten ended up in the home of a Nazi officer and Olivia found herself in an orphanage but by a stroke of luck, she was found by Esther…the woman who tattooed those precious numbers on the babies. Determined to find out the truth of their pasts and their missing family members, these young women are brought together thanks to an article in a newspaper. Just as they connect, the Berlin Wall goes up and they are torn apart again.

What I found most interesting about this story is that it’s told from both sides of the Berlin Wall and how different things were for each side. That’s a moment in history that thanks to historical fiction…I’m learning more and more about and i greatly appreciate it.

Thanks so much to NetGalley, Bookouture and Anna Stuart for access to this story. I really enjoyed it and look forward to going back and reading the first installment and hopefully getting some answers to the questions that linger in my mind

The book prior to this ripped my heart out into shreds and then stomped all over it. I wasn't sure if I should be happy or sad to find out there was a sequel to it. Or if my heart could take it! Anna Stuart has a gift of writing about hard things and times that we need to remember. I really appreciated that she wrote a sequel, so we could see the after effects of the war and how their lives were after being in a concentration camp and losing their child. It was a hard read, but a good and dare I say, necessary one.

Following up on the life of Ester Pasternak after walking out the gates of Auschwitz in 1945, this stunning novel follows her adopted daughter Olivia as she impresses the FDJ with her athletic abilities. When she moves to Berlin to attend the State Secondary School to start on the road to the Olympics and compete for her country she sees a chance to try and learn the fate of her mom's birth daughter, Pippa, who is closer than she could have expected.

Kirsten grew up in West Berlin with her mother and brother, but when her father surprises everyone and shows up at the house, the true story of how she came to be in her family is the biggest surprise of all. She quickly sets out to find her birth mother and is shocked to find out that her sister is in the city, mere blocks away. When they finally connect and make a plan to meet her birth parents they're sure nothing else can stand in the way. Then the night before their meeting, the FDJ shocked the world by building a wall.

I absolutely enjoyed this book. I loved the first book in the series and was thrilled to learn a second book would be coming. I have never studied much about the period surrounding the Berlin Wall and my favorite way to learn about a period in history is to find a good historical fiction that I can start building off of. This story was beautifully crafted. Olivia and Kirsten were well written and I loved seeing the change in Olivia as the story went on. The erection of the wall when it happened was heartbreaking. I especially appreciate the Historical Notes at the end of the book explaining what everything was based on. It still boggles my mind that the first version of the wall truly went up overnight. The idea of going to sleep one night and waking up to such a drastic change is overwhelming to say the least. I can't wait to see what Anna has in store for her readers next.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author via Netgalley and Bookouture in exchange for an honest review.

TRIGGER WARNING: rape, Holocaust (neither graphically described)
1961, Olivia is the black sheep of her family: very sporty and offered the chance to train for the DDR national team. Kirsten is the black sheep of her family in West Berlin: creative and skilled with a needle. The pair finally meet and they want to unite the families and heal the horrors of the past but the politics of the Berlin Wall threaten their dreams...
The Midwife of Berlin is an historical novel set in the 1960s with chapters from the 1940s and 50s. There is a strong connection to The Midwife of Auschwitz with continuation of plot lines but it is not necessary to have read that first.
The prologue of this book made me think I'd read this book before. A midwife in Auschwitz is tattooing newborn babies so that they can be reunited with their mothers later. This book is very much a follow up of the life story of midwife Ester, her adopted daughter Olivia, and lost daughter Pippa (now Kirsten).
Olivia and Kirsten are on either side of the divide, both thinking that their nation is the best. But now echoes from the past and the truth about their families make them face a dangerous reality. Olivia sees the danger of the capitalism of the West but also witnesses the brutality of the socialist regime. Kirsten's adopted father was a wholehearted Nazi and has now been released from prison. His wife was raped and conceived a child so now he has a Jew and a half-Russian in his home.
There is huge emotion countered by political detail as the two teens seek the truth from opposing sides of the Berlin divide. The power of a mother's love features heavily but there is also sibling love and romantic love to soften the harshness of the characters' experiences.
I found the historical and geographical setting compelling, authentic and well researched. I do not know a great deal about the situation in Germany in 1961 so I found the plot and characters interesting. This was strengthened by the history of the missing babies from Auschwitz and the emotional jorney that Ester goes on as a mother.
The Midwife of Berlin is an emotional and interesting historical novel.

I was given an advanced readers copy from netgalley but this review is unbiased. This book was intriguing. I hadn’t read the first one (saw this one on netgalley before realizing it was a sequel) but i was still able to understand and read it as a standalone. At first it was hard to keep track of the characters. Reading about the communism and the government brainwashing was unbelievable. Yes this is fiction but still it seemed like it was well researched . I had no idea the government control was to this extent. At times this book was hard to put down, but it was a lot to absorb at once, so I would put it down so I could process everything. I liked the different personalities of the characters.

This was a different type of WWII fiction than I'm used to reading. I won't say I enjoyed it, because of the subject it's not a joyful read. But it is an important read.